Tom Waters finds permanent home for modern Welsh restaurant Gorse

Former Fat Duck chef Tom Waters has found a permanent home for his modern Welsh pop-up restaurant Gorse.

He plans to launch a 24-cover restaurant in the former Fido Cafe site on Kings Road in Pontcanna, Cardiff, this spring.

Waters worked in London at Bryn Williams’ Odette's and with Phil Howard at the Square before joining Bonhams in Mayfair as sous chef. He later became part of the leadership team at Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray.

The chef returned to Wales in 2021 and has spent the last 18 months running Gorse in independent venues around Cardiff.

The permanent site will continue to offer the same multi-course tasting menu format seen in the pop-up. Dishes will embrace micro-seasonality with produce sourced from a network of small-scale Welsh farmers, growers, and fisherman.

Sample dishes on the menus have included scallop with honey butter, chicken fat and grilled onion bearnaise; bone marrow with roasted kelp, Exmoor caviar and beef fat scones; and malt, brown butter ice cream and carrot.

An open-plan kitchen in the new site will give diners a front-row seat to watch Waters at work.

Waters said: "Giving Gorse a permanent home in Pontcanna is a dream come true. The local community here has been incredibly supportive of my pop-ups, so I can’t wait to create a welcoming space where people can continue to enjoy my modern Welsh food in a setting all of our own making."

Welsh writer and restaurant critic Lowri Cooke tipped Gorse as one to watch in her Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland predictions this year.